by JL Terra
Daire shouted. Bryn saw him land on his back not far from the dragon. Blood coated the side of his face, and the dragon moved closer to him. Boxing him against the wall of the cavern.
She ran over to the Druid, praying she would get to him fast enough. Before he noticed. Amelia’s blood was cursed, poisoned. It had aided the Druid when he tried to kill the tree. Would it help her to hurt him now?
She jabbed the knife into the Druid’s side.
He cried out in surprise. She twisted the handle and pushed it farther in, angled up. He swung around with his arm and caught the side of her head.
She landed on her knees, forced to blink away spots in her vision. She looked up in time to see the knife come down. She blocked it and punched with the other hand, right in the spot where she’d stabbed him. Score one for FBI training. Even on the ground, Bryn still had skills to draw from.
Planting one foot, she pushed off the floor. She grabbed his wrist and held the hand with the knife out to the side while she kicked and punched at him.
A wave of something intangible hit her.
Bryn landed on her back. Blinking again, this time up at the ceiling. The Druid roared. He came down again with the knife, his movements now sluggish. The poison in Amelia’s blood was taking effect.
Bryn tucked in her elbows and rolled across the floor. She splashed through a puddle and came to a stop against something soft, but solid. Open eyes. Unseeing. Bryn screamed and scrambled back from the tiny body.
The Druid laughed.
Daire grunted. He and the Druid landed not far from her. Daire got to his feet and swung the sword.
The dragon roared. The cavern filled with flames. She barely heard Daire cry out. She looked up in time to see him slice off the Druid’s head. Bryn covered her face with her arms. She didn’t want to see where it went.
The dragon slinked from the cavern.
The air cleared and screams rescinded.
She looked around for the children, but they were gone. Just another altered perception thanks to the Druid.
He was dead now, and the illusions he had created—the dead children—were also gone. The dragon had left. But she was still in the cavern with Daire and Amelia. The trees. The hum of life, and the running stream that stretched along the floor.
Bryn rolled to her back and inhaled. She stared up at the canopy above her and exhaled out a breath. The Druid was dead. It was over.
Daire made a choking sound. She looked over. His eyes were on her, wide with a sheen of panic. He fell to his knees, sucking in breath.
“Daire!” Amelia crawled over, her movements fast but jerky. She landed beside him with a wince.
Bryn moved as well, closing the distance so the three of them were in a huddle. She caught his shoulder as he fell to the side and then lowered him down to make sure he didn’t hit his head. “Daire?”
He blinked up at her, mouth open. He was either not able to say anything or had no words to speak. His gaze moved to Amelia, and she saw it soften.
“I feel different,” she said. “Better. Like maybe the curse is broken.”
He blinked.
“Everything’s okay now,” Bryn said to him. “You did it.”
Bryn laid her hand on Amelia’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. She didn’t know what to say. What was there to say? In the end, she settled for touching his cheek and giving him the only words she had. “I’ll take care of her.”
He closed his eyes.
A puff of breath escaped his lips.
And then there was nothing.
Amelia collapsed, sobbing. Bryn looked at the dead Druid and then at Daire. Then the trees and the tunnel where the dragon had wandered away. Nothing but a pawn in the Druid’s game. Like all of them.
She tugged Amelia’s arm over her shoulder. “Come on.”
“But...” Her voice trailed off.
“He wouldn’t want you in this place any longer than necessary.”
“No, I—”
“There’s nothing you can do now.”
Her own words grated against her attempt to hold herself together. Her only thought was that Daire would want her to make sure Amelia got out. That she was okay. They were both okay.
More tears rolled down her face as they lumbered through tunnels.
Bryn prayed with every step.
Asking Providence to show her the way.
Chapter 37
The sun warmed his skin. Daire blinked against its brightness and looked around. He was sitting on grass at the edge of a stream, leaning against a downed tree. A fishing pole had been discarded beside him.
A raven skimmed the water. Another chirped to its companion. The rustle of clothing was so slight he almost missed it.
Daire looked over when the man sat. Black hair, as dark as the feathers of that raven. Had he been asked to describe the man’s face, he would not have been able to recall his appearance. Though it seemed so familiar.
“And so we come to our end,” the man said. “Wherein you are released from your oath.”
Daire looked down. Saw the blood across his body, injuries now making themselves known. If he was dead, surely he wouldn’t be able to feel every one of them.
“The Druid is no more.”
Daire frowned. Across the stream, a deer wandered down for a drink. “And me?”
“Always humanity’s first question,” the man said. “What about me? As though that is the most important thing. Still, I suppose your lives are ordered in such a way.”
“If we’re going to continue with this conversation I’m going to need some Ibuprofen, so I can think.”
The man chuckled. He inclined his head. “My apologies.”
He touched Daire’s shoulder. Warmth rolled through his body. Skin knit back together and his strength returned.
“Thank you.” He hesitated, then said, “What now?”
“That, my friend, is entirely up to you.”
Chapter 38
Bryn came awake slowly, forced to blink against the brightness of the room. Stark white walls with no pictures. A sink in the corner, above which hung a tiny mirrored cabinet. A single padded chair.
Bryn curled her toes under the sheets. The air conditioning vent, high on the wall, blew cold air down on her. It had been running for long enough her nose was a little cool, and she knew instinctively that under the covers would be much warmer.
She shifted, getting a feel for the tension in her muscles. Too loose. She’d been given something to relax her. If this was a hospital, there would be an IV dripping medicine into her arm. And a button on the side of the bed. Nurses would come in with smiles and let her know they were there to help her get better.
But no one came.
High in the corner, at the top of the wall, was a camera. Whoever had her here was watching everything.
That was as long as she had before she could no longer push away the thoughts at the back of her mind. Everything she’d seen and done. Every ache and pain of the last few days. Friendships. Fear. The Druid. Amelia.
Daire.
All of it rushed back at her like a tsunami wave. It swept her up, the force so strong that she cried out into the quiet of the room. Breaking the silence with the sound of her grief.
She didn’t know how long she screamed before the door opened.
The woman who entered had dark red hair. The thick black glasses were way too big for her face. She wore a pencil skirt and blouse and had a pen tucked in the bun at the back of her head. She smiled. Compassionate, honest. Bryn thought for a second that she looked familiar.
She pressed her trembling lips together and waited.
“You’re awake.” The woman held an iPad but didn’t look at the screen. “I’m Doctor Amelia Cartwright.”
“Amelia?” Bryn shook her head. No. She knew an Amelia, and it wasn’t this woman.
“Your brain is a little foggy, right?” Doctor Cartwright wandered over and laid a hand on Bryn’s arm for a split second bef
ore she lifted it. Her fingers were cold. “That’s understandable after everything you’ve been through.”
“You know about that?” Bryn shifted. Lying down put her at too much of a disadvantage.
Doctor Cartwright pulled the one chair across the floor. Its wood legs screeched on the linoleum and Bryn winced.
The doctor sat on the edge of the seat and pushed her glasses up her nose. Again that feeling that she knew this woman took hold. Amelia Cartwright. A doctor. No, that wasn’t right.
She wasn’t sure the lady was lying, but Bryn just couldn’t believe it was true.
“I’m very glad you’re awake,” the doctor said.
Bryn looked around again. “How long was I asleep?”
“Almost a week this time I’m afraid.”
A week? And it had happened more than once? Bryn remembered the cave. The Druid and the dragon. She’d carried Amelia out because Daire had been…
Tears filled her eyes. She looked back at the doctor and demanded, “Where am I?”
Doctor Cartwright stared at her for a long minute. “If you look inside your mind, Bryn, you’ll find the answer to that.”
“Except I don’t know what this place is,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
The doctor leaned forward, holding the iPad the way Bryn had clutched the book. When the building had torn in half, and she’d fallen. When the police had come to interview her.
She lifted her chin. “I don’t know you.”
“The mind is a powerful thing, Bryn. It can convince us that we are nauseous. In danger. Or that we see movement where there was none. The mind can lie to us, and hide the truth from us. Wrap light in darkness, and darkness in light, until we can’t tell one from the other. Our minds can create entire worlds, creative and imaginative places with new languages and never before heard of cultures. Religious systems, and legends.”
Bryn didn’t say anything, but she was pretty sure this was a psychologist and she was in another mental institution.
Sickness roiled through her stomach. She rolled away from the doctor and threw up over the side of the bed. Mostly water, there wasn’t much in her stomach.
She leaned back, sucking in breaths with her mouth open. Trying not to taste her own tongue. The doctor handed her a plastic cup with a straw. The water was freezing. Ice cubes clinked together in the cup.
“Thank you.”
Doctor Cartwright—Bryn wasn’t going to think of her as Amelia—leaned her hip against the side of the bed. “Life is what you make of it, Bryn. You can allow your mind to imprison you in a world that isn’t real, or you can embrace your life.” She paused for a second. “Victims of trauma often retreat into their minds, desperate to escape what’s happening around them. But that isn’t you anymore. No one is going to hurt you here. No one is going to cause you any pain. We just want to help. We want you to find happiness and truth. To see the world the way we know it is.” She smiled then. “All you have to do is make the choice. To live the life you were meant to live.”
Her heels clipped on the floor as she walked to the door.
Bryn said, “I have one question.”
The doctor turned back.
“Am I married?”
Cartwright smiled politely. “Your divorce went through a week ago. You’re a single woman again.”
The door shut behind her, leaving Bryn alone in the quiet of the white room. Beyond the silence she could hear the drone of traffic.
She shut her eyes. Remembering Daire’s face as he looked down at her, his eyes soft. He hadn’t wanted to pain her with the knowledge that everything was real. He’d believed. She had refused to because it was easier that way. No one wanted to embrace the horror as real. Not when they could instead believe that it was nothing but a fabrication. A lie. The mind at work, conjuring up a villain.
And a hero to fight him.
If she lay here long enough, Bryn was sure the memories would become real again. She could journey to that place in her mind where her friends now resided. The place where truth won. Where heroes fell. Where evil was vanquished, but the price that victory exacted was high.
Tears streamed down her face. She lay there for what seemed like hours, expunging all the grief she felt.
Night fell outside. Bryn drifted into a fitful sleep where flames licked at her and children laughed, their dead eyes bearing down on her. She ran, but the voices chased her.
Bryn awoke on the floor in a tangle of sheets. Her hip hurt from where she’d rolled out of bed. She fought her way free of the covers and then stood. The lamp had been left on. There was no clock, so she didn’t know what time it was. No personal effects at all.
Her legs shook. She locked her knees under the cotton scrub pants she wore. The shirt matched in color. She was pretty sure the underwear was actually hers.
Bryn used the adjoining bathroom and then went back into her room.
Was it her room?
The doctor had said the memories were in her mind. Bryn surveyed every part of the room, the bathroom. The shower. Maybe she didn’t want to find this place buried deep in her subconscious. Maybe she wanted the dream to be what was real.
But if she did that, then she had to accept that Daire was really gone. That he had given his life to end the Druid and save the world.
Bryn went to the door.
She stared at the handle for a while. The other side of that door meant a life of her own making instead of meds and sessions, doctors and diagnoses. Without the warmth of oblivion—if she wanted it. In here she could check out.
Out there, in the real world, she had to face her own demons. Find the light.
Embrace it.
Live there. Where things were hard but real. True. Scary, but honest.
Bryn twisted the handle and stepped into the hall. A single light overhead flickered. Ceiling tiles had been pushed aside so there were offset wires hanging down. The floor was bare, no carpet. The walls had been drywalled and textured, but not painted.
Bryn looked both ways down the hall. This building was still under construction.
She moved down the hallway to the window at the end. The sticker was still on the glass. She stared out at the street below, lined with palm trees. Dawn was breaking across the ocean. The streets consisted of high-rise buildings, hotels, and condos. Florida, maybe. Hawaii was also a possibility.
Bryn took an elevator to the ground floor. She crossed an empty lobby and prayed the front door was unlocked. Her feet were bare. She looked like what she was—an escaped mental patient. That thought made her lips curl up, which she decided was progress. A measure of it, at least.
She stepped outside. A warm ocean breeze caressed her face. Bryn stared at the horizon for a moment, simply enjoying the morning.
A German shepherd sat out front of the building next door. A café. The door opened and a man stepped out with a paper cup of coffee. He was dressed in jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt. He clicked his fingers. “Dauntless, heir.”
The dog hopped up and followed him to a pickup truck parked at the curb. He jumped into the bed and the man lifted the tailgate.
He got in the truck and drove away, not once looking at her.
Dauntless.
Shadrach.
She knew him. Knew both of them.
Bryn smiled to herself as they drove away, enjoying the sight of a familiar face when she had no idea what was going on. Or where she could go. What she was supposed to do next.
Fingers tapped her shoulder. She spun around and her eyes widened. Of course! The doctor hadn’t been Amelia, she’d been… “Remy.”
Amelia frowned, shifting the bulky tote bag on her shoulder. “Uh-oh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea if you don’t remember who I am.”
“You knew I was here?”
Amelia looked in the bag and pulled out a pair of canvas flat shoes. She dropped them on the sidewalk in front of Bryn. “Put these on.”
“Amelia.�
��
“Fine.” The girl huffed. “Yes, we brought you here. We needed to know what you wanted to do with your life.”
“And if I’d chosen to be a mental patient?”
Amelia shrugged. “We would have found you a nice place to live. Doctor Cartwright would have kept coming to see you, to check on your progress.”
“You mean Remy.”
Amelia grinned. There was absolutely no guile in the woman’s features, only happiness. That ever-present wave of grief rolled over Bryn again. Would it ever leave?
Amelia’s smile dropped. “What is it?”
She bit her lip. “Daire.”
“Oh, that.” Amelia waved her hand, then wound her arm through Bryn’s. “Let’s go get something to eat. You’re probably starving.”
Amelia started to walk. Her arm snagged in Bryn’s. “You aren’t coming?”
Bryn didn’t move. “You’d better explain right now.”
Amelia’s eyes went distant for a second, then she turned to look over her shoulder. Bryn saw the earpiece. A communication device. A smile played on the young woman’s lips. She hadn’t stopped smiling since she’d walked up to Bryn. And what on earth was there to smile about?
Then she saw him.
Daire was fifteen feet away, just standing there on the sidewalk. He wore his signature leather jacket, even though it was probably eighty-five degrees right now.
She took a step back.
“She’s gonna run,” Amelia warned.
Bryn spun around to do exactly that, instinct telling her to flee.
Behind her, Mei, Ben, and Remy stood side by side. Blocking her in. No, standing guard. Protecting her.
She turned back to Daire. He was closer now. Amelia stepped back, then moved around Bryn to the others.
She didn’t take her eyes off him. “Are you okay?” His low voice rolled through every fiber of her body. She wanted to shut her eyes and bask in it, but that would mean not being able to see him.
“I should ask you the same thing.” She paused. “You were dead.”
“Yes.”
